And Jesus uttered
a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him,
saw the way He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was a son of
God!"
In the ninth hour, after having been hung on a cross for
six hours, being mocked the whole time, Jesus had finished his suffering. He quoted Psalm 22 briefly, and then cried
out loud. This may have been a cry of
suffering, or it could have been purposefully ending the long process of dying
through lack of oxygen. He could have
cried out, emptying his lungs of air, and then allow exhaustion to take him—he
would have fainted and died.
At that
moment, an interesting detail occurred.
In the temple, there was a veil to separate the place of God from
mankind. If anyone entered in the room
of God, called the Holy of Holies— except for the high priest once a year— they
would die. At Jesus’ death, however,
access to God was opened up. Jesus’
whole ministry was about providing access to God outside the temple in
Jerusalem. Now, through the ripping of
the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the world, at the time
of Jesus’ death, it is indicated that access to God has been provided to
everyone through the death of Jesus.
A
centurion saw the manner of Jesus’ death—how he sought salvation from God, the
darkness that came on the whole land and the way Jesus died so suddenly and he
made a remarkable statement—“This man was son of God.” This Gentile, who did not know the ways of
God, yet recognized Jesus as being a holy man, a power of God. At this hour as well, the darkness lifted
from the land. The centurion’s
statement, as well as the many times in Jesus’ passion that he was called “the
king of the Jews” were all unintentionally highlighting who Jesus really is—and
who he succeeded in being through the obedience of God in his death.
Every church that has cast someone out for not following their rules owes Jesus an apology. All that a church should ever do is provide opportunities for connecting with God, and providing a place of growth. Churches tend to forget that every person will go to God on a different path, and every person following Jesus must do so in a different way. If a person looks too unpure, or a follower of Jesus too imperfect, then we need to remember that is why Jesus died. If we have a problem with someone's struggles, then we need to remember that it is not our issue-- Jesus will deal with it himself.
If we throw someone out of church for being too unlike us, for not living up to our standards, for being too impure, then we should apologize to Jesus. Jesus died so that the veil might be ripped, but churches spend so much effort trying to sew the veil back up, to restrict access to God. We don't have that right.
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